Message in a Bottle
by Sarcastrow
Summary: A Hugo Weasley mystery. Someone has died under mysterious circumstances, and Hugo Weasley, private dick, is on the case. Who done it? Well let me know at what chapter you figured it out. Written for the 2013 HPporninthesun fest. Femslash, Slash (very small bit), Het, Torture, minor character death, You've been warned. Also THE darkest and among few stories I've written that is EWE.
1. Prelude

Message in a Bottle

Prelude

He'd not actually been in this particular room in the manor before. It always had been occupied by its former master, but now it had a new master. The day had been rainy, cold and dreary, reflecting the mood of the people who had attended the funeral. His mother had spoken with a passion she rarely showed these days, with humor about their shared loathing for each other at school and with fondness for their shared missions of peace after. As minister, she had given her old enemy a kind of honor in death that the man had not sought in his later years. He was stunned when he saw a tear streak down her face as she muttered, "I'll miss him," at the end of her eulogy.

As a wizarding private investigator, Hugo had solved more than a few murders in his life; now it was time to solve one for himself and his partner. The list of possible suspects included most of Draco Malfoy's business associates, several prominent ministry officials, and the few remaining family members.

"So this is your Dad's private study?" Hugo asked as he lit his cigarette.

Scorpius nodded. "Was… suppose it's mine, now."

"Appears so." Hugo put his hand on Scorpius' shoulder. "You still planning on moving us in here, then?"

"Yeah. It's the family home, and as I am the last living Malfoy…"

Hugo chuckled. "Except your mum."

Hugo observed for the thousandth time that his lover's smirk was a genetic duplicate of his father's. "Yes, well, she always loathed this place, and after she found out about Dad and 'Aunt Pansy'…".

Hugo smiled. "Madam Parkinson staying on as well?"

Scorpius nodded. "Oh, yes. I promised Dad. I sort of like her better than Mum, anyway." He walked to the bar. "Whiskey?"

"Sure."

"How do you want it?"

"In a glass would be nice."

Scorpius chuckled, and Hugo was cheered that he could get a smile out of his love, particularly on this day. "And how do you feel about Madam Parkinson's daughter?" Hugo asked, knowing the answer, but wanting Scorpius to say it out loud.

"She is my half sister."

"And my cousin in law, and a Weasley now."

"And about to make your uncle George a grandfather," Scorpius said with another laugh. "I like… no, I love Delphinia. She's… She got the best of the both of them. I'm pleased Dad acknowledged her. I'll have to thank your mum again for that." Scorpius looked at his best friend and lover. "You don't suspect her, do you?"

"Mum?"

Scorpius coughed. "No. Delphinia."

"Delphinia's too smart for that. There's nothing she could gain from it, and she grew to love your dad anyway." Hugo shook his head. "No, I eliminated her, you, Madam Parkinson, my mum and dad, and several others already."

"You suspected me and your mum?"

"Not really, but I have to be thorough." Hugo looked at him seriously. "The both of you had motives."

"Yeah, I suppose."

"I'm glad she came today. It sort of completed their story." Hugo shook his head. "They hated each other so much when they were in school. I'm happy they found a friendship after the war."

Scorpius wrapped his arm around Hugo's shoulders. "Because of you."

"Because of us," Hugo corrected. "They were on speaking terms, more or less, before we came out, but when they had to accept 'us,' well, they both had to put some effort into being cordial. Mum says that's when she finally understood him."

"And he her."

"I think he harbored a secret crush on her anyway," Hugo said smugly.

"Possibly, he always told me to keep his compliments about her to myself."

Hugo turned in surprise. "What compliments?"

"Oh, when she was made director of MLE, and when she got that writing award." Scorpius smiled. "When she was made Minister, too." He chuckled. "He was quite effusive that night, said your dad was one of the luckiest men he'd ever known." The blonde man sat in his father's chair and smiled. "Really had to keep that one to myself. Mum and Pansy… don't care for your mum."

"Come on, Scor, they hate her. We both know that, but they're women, they can be polite in company. That's what counts."

"Well, with Aunt Pansy, I'm not so sure about the hate part. She sometimes, in an unguarded moment, gives your mum an honest compliment, but yeah, my Mum does hate her. You know that's only because of everything that happened just after the war. Mum hung on to all that pureblood bullshit way too long, and it hurt her. Hurt her prospects, hurt her situation, and hurt her family. Dad kind of rescued her by marrying her. He should have married Pansy though."

"Why didn't he?" Hugo asked. He didn't like the idea of interrogating Scorpius, so he'd been doing it stealthily in small conversations over the last few days.

"Grandmum made Dad marry Mum, she was trying to redeem the family name and his marrying into the Greengrass family did, in a way. Aunt Pansy was so fucked up by the end of the war. Her parents were dead, she was as much a prisoner here as Dad and Madam Lovegood were, and then… and then there was Aunt Bellatrix."

"Mum's told me very little, Scor. She… When I ask her about that night she changes right in front of me, and then Dad gets mad and says not to ask again. I think Rose knows more, but Rose knows fucking everything.".

"Hey, you are just as brilliant as your sister, Mr. Weasley. Don't you forget it."

"Thanks. I love you, you know."

"I'm well aware, Hugo." Scorpius laughed. "After twenty years together…" He was stopped with a kiss. When they parted Scorpius looked into his lover's eyes. "Do you really want to know what happened that night?"

"Yeah, I really do," Hugo said as he flopped down in a large leather chair.

"All right, I can actually show it to you," Scorpius said.

Hugo was surprised. "Really?"

Scorpius nodded and walked across the room to a large cabinet. "Draconis Pecus Pectorus!" he said commandingly. The cabinet opened to reveal a pensieve on a finely carved pedestal. Behind it, on shelves within the cabinet, were rows and rows of small vials with initials and dates on them. Scorpius bent and opened another, smaller cabinet under the pensieve. From it he pulled a small box about ten inches on a side. He set it on a shelf next to the pensieve.

"These are Dad's worst memories," Scorpius said, "He called it his 'Hell box.' Whenever he was feeling particularly obnoxious or superior he would lock himself in here and revisit these. He told me I was never to look, and I never have, but I do know what's in here." He carefully rummaged in the box for a moment. "Ah, here we are." He handed a vial to Hugo. In Draco Malfoy's flowing script was written _B.L. H.G. 03/23/98_.

"That's his memory of that night." He took the vial back and put it in its place in the box. "I'd like to show you a few others first, they'll educate you some about Aunt Bellatrix and her methods." Scorpius looked up on the highest shelf where the earliest memories sat. "Ah," he said with smirk, "This one, yes." _B.L. L.L. 02/13/98 _shown in gold etched in the glass.

"Yeah… okay," Hugo said. _I'll be looking in some of these without you, Scor_, he thought. _The answer is here. I'd bet real money on it._

Scorpius lifted the large, silver cover from the pensieve and poured the memory into the shallow basin.


	2. BL LL 021398

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 2

B.L. L.L. 02/13/98

"Ready?" Scorpius asked.

Hugo looked at him. "Yes, you coming?"

"No." Scorpius shook his head and smirked. "I've seen it." He set the empty vial on a shelf under the pensieve. "This one tonight, a more… intense one maybe tomorrow and then… and then we'll talk about that other one." He inclined his head toward the box on the shelf. He smirked. "In you go."

Hugo nodded and smiled at his love, then he bent and stuck his head in the pensieve.

The hallway was dark. Draco, a glass of warm milk in his hand and biscuits in his pockets, was making his way back to his room. Hugo followed close behind. Draco ascended the stairs, and at the third landing he stopped. A light was coming from the partially open door of his aunt's room. He crept closer, and as he approached he heard her talking to an unseen person. Hugo heard, too.

"You have a certain charm I find appealing. If you serve me well, satisfy my appetites, your stay here will be pleasant. If not…" There was a stifled wail from the room. Draco looked through the crack of the open door and he saw Luna Lovegood, paralyzed from the _Cruciatus_ curse, hovering naked in the center of the room. His aunt was pointing her wand at the willowy blonde. She released the curse and Luna fell to the floor.

Hugo had known his personal preferences in romantic companionship since he turned nine, but that didn't stop him from appreciating the sight before him. His opinion was that just because he had his particular tastes, it didn't mean he couldn't admire the other choices on the menu. The young Luna Lovegood, now Scamander, was breathtakingly beautiful. Hugo chose to step through into the room while Luna rose to her feet.

Bellatrix Lestrange was dressed in a black lace merry widow. A garter belt and fishnet stockings completed her outfit. The tall boots she normally wore were tucked under the chair her robes were piled on. She was magnificent and terrifying. "That was pain," she said, "This is pleasure. _Orgasmus!"_

An entirely different cry came from Luna as she doubled over and clutched at herself. Her breathing became a panting squeak, and her whole body flushed. In spite of himself, Hugo found that this aroused him tremendously. She really was beautiful when she came, and she was still coming. Bellatrix held the curse on Luna for more than five minutes. She writhed, and gasped, and cried. She begged for it to stop and for it never to stop. She cried to god, she cried to the devil, and she shook and quivered on the floor until she lost consciousness.

Bellatrix laughed. The sound quelled any arousal Hugo had begun to have. It was the laugh of the truly unhinged. _This woman is completely insane, _he thought in wonder. It rang through the room, a high tittering that evolved into the screeching cackle of the damned. Hugo was about to stuff his fingers in his ears when Luna began to stir and the laughter stopped.

"Did you like that, little blood traitor?" The dark-haired woman knelt and caressed the blonde girl's cheek.

Luna didn't respond. She was regarding Madam Lestrange with a curious look. Hugo recognized that look; he'd been on its receiving end. Luna Scamander was, second to his mother, the smartest person Hugo knew. He recognized her analytical stare for what it was, but Bellatrix did not. "It doesn't matter if I liked it or not," she said. "You will do what pleases you no matter what I say."

Bellatrix looked momentarily stunned at the more than thoughtful answer, and then she laughed again. "You and I will have such a good time." She smiled to herself. "Or at least I will. None of the others are intelligent enough to understand me." She caressed Luna's cheek again. "You, my pale waif, you I can teach." She stepped to the bed and sat. "Come over here."

Luna stood and walked across the room to stand in front of Bellatrix.

"So beautiful, so pale, so perfect, such a pity," She said as she ran her finger over Luna's breasts. "You're a virgin, aren't you?"

"Yes, Madam Lestrange."

"Not after tonight," said Bellatrix with a harsh voice. She ran her hands over Luna's breast, and then leaned forward to capture one nipple in her mouth while she slid her right hand down Luna's waist, across her hips, and into the soft blonde curls she found there. Bellatrix looked up and smiled. "You're wet."

"That's not surprising given the previous charm and the current stimulation, Madam Lestrange."

"Call me Bella, but only when we're alone… Luna." She drew her finger expertly across Luna's clit and small squeak sounded from Luna's throat. "Oh, I'll show you so much, my pet, so very much." She started sliding her fingers through the soft, wet folds, scissoring them over the hardening nub. Luna was breathing harder, and a flush was creeping down her chest. She threaded her fingers in Bellatrix's hair and moaned loudly. "Do you want to come?"

"Yes, Bella, that would be pleasant. Oh… There… Oh, yes." She shuddered and chirped pants sounded from her throat as she came again.

"Excellent, you respond very well." Bellatrix scooted up onto the bed, lay back against the head board, and spread her legs. "Come, show me what you know."

Luna, with her calm, curious expression, crawled onto the bed and lowered her face to Bellatrix's pussy. Hugo moved to the head of the bed so he could watch. He was starting to enjoy this again in a way, and it disturbed him. He was committed to Scorpius and wouldn't have it any other way, but watching these two women was having an undeniable effect on him. It compounded when Luna drew her tongue expertly across Bellatrix's clit. The older woman gasped and heaved under her when Luna started slowly circling her tongue.

"You know more than you let on," Bellatrix said breathily.

"I am Ravenclaw, I have studied, Bella," Luna responded and resumed.

Bellatrix gasped. "Fingers, fingers, use your fingers."

Luna slid one, and then a second finger into Bellatrix and twisted them side to side.

"Oh, fuck!" Bellatrix nearly shouted. "Yes, like that. Oh, fuck." Her head thrashed back and forth as Luna relentlessly tongued and fingered. "Now, one in my arse, go on. Now, do it now." And she bellowed when Luna did.

Bellatrix came in the same manner she did everything, wildly, with a crazed abandon. She pressed down on the back of Luna's head to hold her in place while she bucked and shouted and rolled completely off the bed. They landed with a thump on the floor but Luna apparently never stopped her work for Bellatrix soon was begging her to stop.

Luna raised her head, and with the same grin Hugo had seen on other, not quite similar occasions, asked, "Was that acceptable?"

Bellatrix laughed her unhinged cackle. "Acceptable? Merlin, child! When you are properly trained…" She sat up, stood, pulled Luna to her feet, and shoved her onto the chair in the corner of the large room. "I am going to show you a few things now, little blood traitor. Oh yes," She pushed Luna back and in one long lick dragged her tongue from Luna's knee to her blonde-covered pussy. "Spread," she commanded.

Luna hesitantly opened herself to Bellatrix. The older woman knelt and used her nose to separate Luna's folds, and then savagely attacked the hood of Luna's clit with her tongue. Bellatrix had very obvious talent, for Luna was soon moaning and twisting. "Oh my, Bella," she said as she panted. "You are very skilled, oh, oh god!" Luna tried to look down at Bellatrix but her eyes would not stay open or focused. She shivered and quaked as Bellatrix took her to the edge four times before granting her a screaming orgasm.

Bellatrix crawled up Luna's body and kissed her, sharing her own taste with her. "I've had to be resourceful for a long time. Rudolphus is a eunuch, the Dark Lord prefers his most trusted not have… baser urges, so he castrated him years ago. That's why he, and Thorfin, and McNabb, and the others are so large."

"But he trusts you more than anyone," said Luna.

Bellatrix kissed her forcefully. "Thank you. Yes, I am his most trusted, but he keeps me whole for… his own amusement."

"You have lain with _Him?_"

"No, he has never to my knowledge mated, but he enjoys watching me, so I remain." Her eyes took on an even more haunted look. "As you have personally experienced, the Dark Lord can enter your mind at will. He enjoys the feminine perspective for reasons he keeps to himself, but I am more than happy to oblige. Perhaps that is why he gelds his males." She laughed as she reached for her wand. "Lucius, pig that he is, never requested the honor. No wonder the Dark Lord disdains him." She looked at Luna and held up her wand. "Who do you fancy?"

"What do you mean, Bella?"

Bellatrix looked at her sharply. "Don't be coy with me, who would you choose to be your lover?"

"Of anyone?"

"Yes."

Luna considered for a moment. "Of anyone, it would be Professor Snape."

"Severus?" Bellatrix laughed. Hugo saw, for a brief few seconds, a normal, curious woman look out from under those heavily-lidded eyes. "Why Severus?"

Luna smiled. "My first year at Hogwarts was not as pleasant as it could have been. I was visiting Madam Pomfrey for a dose of Pepper Up, as someone had stolen the blanket from my bed, when Professor Snape entered. The front of his trousers was smoking. It seems Neville had made a bad potion and it exploded all over Professor Snape's front. I went unnoticed, as I often do, while Madam Pomfrey applied a salve to the professor's injuries. He seemed to enjoy her application of the salve to his member a great deal."

"I'm sure he did, The Dark Lord has kept him whole as well for some reason." Bellatrix shook her head in obvious distaste and confusion, and then she laughed. "Very well. _Penia Duplius Severus Snape!_" she intoned. Her wand swelled and lengthened. A ruby red helmet shape formed on the end and gradually a very lifelike representation of Snape's most intimate part solidified around Bellatrix's wand. It was almost eight inches long, two across, and had a slight curve. Bellatrix waved her hand over the cock in her other hand and said, "_Lubris."_

"Lie back, Luna."

"But I…"

"Lie. Back."

Luna reclined with a frightened look on her face.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to torture you," she chuckled to herself. "Well, maybe a little, but you'll like it." She appraised the wand cock. "Severus certainly has some… interesting attributes." The wand cock pressed against Luna's opening. "Relax, it will be pleasurable. I'm not one dimensional; I enjoy giving pleasure as much as I like dealing pain." The wand cock slid into Luna an inch. "You see."

Luna panted and squirmed in the chair as Bellatrix stroked her clit and slid the wand cock in further. Slowly and with surprising delicacy she pushed until she felt it stop against the entrance of Luna's womb. As slowly as she had inserted the wand cock she withdrew it and slid it in again. Luna gasped. After a few more thrusts Bellatrix and Hugo could tell that she was definitely not in any pain.

"Now," Bellatrix said and withdrew the wand cock from Luna. A small disappointed sigh escaped the younger woman. Bellatrix smiled and cupped Luna's cheek. "Don't worry; Severus will be right back. Go over and lie on the bed." As Luna moved to the bed, Hugo followed. Bellatrix performed a wordless incantation and the wand cock attached itself to a leather belt that had appeared around her waist. She knelt on the bed, positioned herself between Luna's legs, and slid the wand cock back into her. "This is how he would have fucked you. You wanted it that day, didn't you?"

"I was very young."

"Didn't you?" Bellatrix said more forcefully.

"Yes," Luna said in a low, lusty whisper, and then moaned loudly as Bellatrix began fucking her.

Hugo felt himself stiffening. The very realistic cock on the strap-on belt plundered Luna. Her sex was pink and wet, and the glee with which Bellatrix fucked her was written on the older woman's face. When Luna came again, Bellatrix rolled off her and laid face up. "My turn again," she said, and with a silent incantation transferred the strap-on to Luna. "Fuck me, Luna. Fuck me with Severus's cock just like I fucked you."

Now Hugo really was hard. Luna positioned herself over Bellatrix and slid the wand cock neatly into the dark-forested pussy. "You chose well, my waif. Severus has a very nice prick. Oh, yes, faster now," Bellatrix said, and then she shuddered and stopped Luna. "In my arse, finish in my arse." Luna pulled the wand cock from Bellatrix's pussy and placed the head of Snape's cock against her puckered arse. "Slowly, like I did at first," she commanded. Bellatrix cast the_ Lubris_ charm again, and with great care Luna pushed forward.

"AHHH! Oh, fuck!," Bellatrix cried. "Don't stop! Don't you dare stop." Luna rocked her hips forward until the cheeks of Bellatrix's arse were against her thighs. "Slowly now, slowly, oh, very good."

At that moment Hugo felt a very familiar warmth surround him. "Thanks, Scor." He looked down at himself but in the pensieve version of his body he couldn't see what he knew was there. Scorpius was delivering a terrific blow job while Hugo watched the two women fuck.

In the study Scorpius sat cross-legged in front of Hugo with his back resting against the cabinet. He sucked and licked his lover's strong cock while Hugo twisted and muttered with his head in the pensieve.

In the memory Bellatrix was coming unhinged again. She rubbed her clit furiously while Luna pounded her arse with the strap-on. Uttering a mighty cry, she came very hard and sprinkled Luna's lower body with her juices. At the same moment, Hugo shuddered and spent himself. Bellatrix drew Luna down into a long, violent kiss. "You have done well, my pet," Bellatrix said sleepily. "Very well." Luna withdrew from Bellatrix and lay next to her. "Thank you, Bella. I should return to the basement now, Mr. Ollivander will be concerned."

"Leave him," she said as she rolled on her side to face Luna. "You will stay here with me tonight. I'm sure you will appreciate this bed far better than the blanket on the floor you have there."

"Yes, it is much more comfortable."

Bellatrix nodded and closed her eyes. She was soon breathing slower. Luna looked down at the wand cock still on the belt around her. "_Finite," _she whispered, and the wand resumed its normal shape. She pulled it from the belt and appraised it with her analytical stare. With a swish, she banished the belt and was once again completely naked, and then she looked at the sleeping woman next to her.

"I could kill you now, Bella. I should kill you now." She shook her head. "But I foresee that is not for me to do. You will never win, Madam Lestrange." Luna said to the sleeping woman in the bed next to her. "With all your beauty, and all your madness and all your hate, you are still not strong enough to defeat the white and its servant, Harry Potter." She smiled grimly. "I see you were a kind and loving child once, but that was so long ago. I wish I could heal you." A tear made its way slowly down her cheek. "I fear it is too late though. You will die for _Him_, and I will be there to see it, I think."Luna laid her head in the crook of Bellatrix's arm and closed her eyes.

Hugo fell back onto the floor of the study. Scorpius had thoughtfully cast the cleansing charm and buckled his trousers. The younger Malfoy was sitting in his father's chair at the desk. "I find that one very revealing," he said. "It's a side of my Grand Aunt that not many ever saw. Yes she was quite mad, but she did have at least one or two redeeming qualities." His expression grew grim. Remember that when I show you… the other memory." He rose from the chair, crossed the room and pulled Hugo to his feet. "In the mean time, you owe me, Weasley." Taking Hugo's hand he led him from the study and up the stairs to their room.


	3. Interogation

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 3

Interrogation

"Good morning, Madam Parkinson," Hugo said as he entered the kitchen.

Pansy turned to face him. "Good morning, Hugo," she smirked. "Did you sleep well? I know it's hard getting used to a new bed and a new room." She set her bowl of Weetabix on the table.

Hugo recognized the barb. "I should ask you the same question." He smiled, "After all, you spent a great deal of time in that room as well." He laughed. "It's not as if you actually _slept_ in your room the last twenty-two years."

"Conceded," she said with a smile as she sat. Hugo appraised her for the hundredth time. Pansy Parkinson was still a pretty, if odd-looking, woman. As she had matured her face had become less flat, partially from her constant battle with weight, as she had a terrible time staying above a hundred pounds. Her war experience had left her with real issues. Because of that, her face was much thinner than it had been in her youth. The pug faced girl was long gone, physically, but Pansy Parkinson was still a force.

During the war Draco had rescued her, brought her to the manor, and she had never really left. After the war Draco had made sure she had her room and meals there. He had personally escorted her through the maze of interviews, examinations, and paperwork their side of the conflict had had to endure. When he was forced to court and then marry _Astoria,_ he made his mother promise that Pansy could stay. After Draco's marriage came apart, he moved back to the manor. Though he and _Astoria_ never officially divorced, wizarding society knew everything.

The kettle started its whistle. "I'll get the tea then," he told her. As he poured the hot water into the pot and added the tea ball he asked, "You don't mind, do you? I'm sure Scorpius would let you have that room for as long as you wanted it."

She shook her head. "No, I can't sleep in there anymore; too many memories."

"I hope they're good ones."

She smiled. "They are. Twenty-two years, Hugo. They were the best in my life, I'm glad we had them."

"Thought of what you'll do with the bequest?" he asked.

"No, Draco provided for me well over the years. I really didn't need…" She looked at him with a curious expression. "You're questioning me. I thought I wasn't one of your suspects."

"Oh, you're not." He shook his head and grinned. "I couldn't imagine you killing Mr. Malfoy."

Her face fell, and a tear streaked her cheek. "Nor could I, Hugo. Nor could I."

_I can spot a fake a mile off. No, I don't suspect you at all, Madam,_ he thought. "I will find out who did. I promised Scorpius." He put his hand on hers and smirked. "Adam Boot is a fine investigator, but he doesn't have my resources or time. I'm keeping him informed of my findings, and the Auror corps will get the call when the case is solved."He smirked

"You're a good man, Hugo. I'm very happy for you and Scorpius." Her smile was tempered by her sadness. "Shall I pour?"

"Sure."

She filled his cup, then her own. "Would you like toast?"

"Yeah, that'd be good."

Pansy flicked her wand over her shoulder. The bread bin opened, three slices of bread floated out, and then slid into the toasting rack on the stove. A second flick set the stove at a medium flame. She slid Hugo's cup across the table to him.

Hugo took up his tea and sipped. "Thanks. We're happy you're staying, Madam. Scor confided in me that he… well, he thinks of you as a second mother." He tilted his head and muttered, "And a much more likable one."

Pansy snorted in her tea. "I'll bear that in mind."

Hugo looked at her with a more serious expression. "Have you thought about what I asked last week?"

"There are so many, Hugo. When I tried to write out a list of people that might want to… to kill…" her voice hitched.

"It's okay, Madam. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, no, I have to move on. I have to help." She drew a shaky breath. "I made a list, and it just kept growing." She huffed. "His wife's family, your family, the Potters, half our housemates, dozens of business associates. It got very long, very fast."

"I went through the books last week," he said, "I don't think Mr. Malfoy had cheated anyone, or given them a reason to exact that degree of revenge, so I think we can sideline the business people."

"Have you spoken with the remainders of the Crabbe and Goyle families?"

"There are no Crabbes younger than seventy, and Gregory Goyle was less than helpful," Hugo answered. "But he's such an idiot. He…"

Pansy laughed heartily. "Oh, Hugo, your gift for understatement is a good as your father's." She laughed and shook her head. "Greg… well, Draco always said if brains were dynamite he wouldn't have enough to blow his nose."

Hugo smiled. "I was going to be a bit kinder than that, but I'll defer to your superior knowledge. Yeah, he doesn't have the wits to get away with it even this long."

"Someone smart, then?"

Hugo nodded. "Smart enough to defeat the tracing charms, leave no evidence of themselves and, most importantly, not set off the house wards. We still don't really know how they actually killed him. It's baffling."

Pansy looked at him through her eyelashes. "You chatted with your mother?"

Hugo smiled slyly. "Yes, her alibi checks." He eyed her. "And Dad's."

"Potter?"

"Uncle Harry too, he was very sad to hear, actually."

"Yes, he had an appreciation for Draco of late." She smiled at a memory. "He was here about four or five weeks ago, talking with Draco about the new Headmistress at Hogwarts." She rolled her eyes. "Lavender Brown, who would have known?"

"I like her."

She huffed. "You would, you're male."

"Umm…"

"That doesn't matter, Hugo." She patted his hand. "You are just as susceptible as any other man to her wolf pheromones."

"Maybe." He flicked his wand at the toast tray and the slices flipped themselves. "So you suspect Astoria?"

Pansy huffed. "Wouldn't put it past the bitch."

"Me either, but she was out of the country."

Her eyebrows rose. "You're sure?"

He nodded. "Yes, the Nepalese ministry confirms her presence at the council."

"And the rest of them?" Pansy asked.

"I'm still checking the other three sister's locations, but they didn't seem to be unwilling to verify where they were."

"All right," she said. "How about Millicent and Marcus Flint?"

"Them? Really?"

Pansy sipped her tea and closed her eyes. "Millie was my best friend… until the middle of seventh year, when… _HE_… killed my parents, killed my brother, and then Draco saved me. I found out she thought Draco should have turned me over to _Him_. She and Marcus tried to ambush Draco, they tried to _Imperius_ him. It didn't work and Draco… well, it took Marcus a long time to… um… _satisfy_ Millie again." She smiled her wicked smile. "Millie likes her cock, and with Marcus incapacitated she was forced to make do with… alternatives." She laughed and looked at Hugo. "They talk a good line, and are so very careful, but I know they still hold the old beliefs."

"I'll look into it." Hugo looked over his tea at her. "How did Mr. Malfoy protect you from Riddle?"

"Draco asked him to spare me, and for some reason he did. I think it was another way for him to torture Draco. He probably wanted to have Draco kill me. I know he was planning to make him kill Luna."

"Madam Scamander?"

"Yes, she and I were prisoners here, you know that."

"Yeah, I remember," Hugo said, nodding to himself.

"He'd never have done it, Hugo. Draco couldn't kill anyone." Pansy looked out the kitchen window into the distance. "I miss him so much."

"I know."

"He and I had the best conversations." More tears fell. "All our lives… all our lives…"

Hugo flicked his wand at the toast. It flew from the toasting tray to the table. A second flick and the butter knife dipped into its dish and buttered the toast. _She's crying now anyway,_ he thought. _Might as well. _"I need to ask about the morning you found him."

She nodded, and the tears didn't stop.

"He was in the study?"

"Yes." She sipped her tea.

"In his chair?" Hugo asked, and took a bite of his toast.

"No, he was on the floor by the pensieve cabinet."

Hugo nodded. "Anything unusual about that?"

"I don't know, I don't think so." She looked back to the window. "He was very judicious about storing the memories. Dating them just so, arranging them, keeping the catalogue…"

He started. "What catalogue?"

She looked back at him. "The little brown book in the cabinet, I'm sure Scorpius knows where it is."

"He didn't mention it." He studied his tea. "I'd like to see it." He looked back at her. "Now that you've had some time, is there anything that seemed out of place, anything different than normal?"

"No. It was just like any other day, really." She smiled and a few more tears ran down her face. "We had a good laugh at breakfast. He had been getting a bit clumsy lately and he accidentally dropped most of the sugar bowl into my Weetabix." She dabbed her cheeks with her kerchief and chuckled. "He said getting old was a bloody pain."

"My dad says the same thing."

Pansy smirked through the tears. "He's aged well enough, your dad. Weasley men just get better looking the older they get. You've got good genes there, Hugo. Count yourself lucky."

"Thanks, I'll tell him you said that."

She laid her hand on his, and her old mischievous grin lit her face. "Don't you dare, and really don't tell your mother, and especially don't tell her that I think she's the best minister we've had in our lives."

He smiled warmly at Pansy. "Okay, I'll keep all your compliments about my family to myself."

She smiled through her tears. "Thanks. After all, I wouldn't want to spoil their image of me."

"Hi, Mum."

Hermione kissed her son's forehead. "Good morning, Hugo," she said and walked back around her desk. As she sat in her chair, Hugo reflected on its past occupants. She had told him about Fudge, the incompetent fool who let Riddle rise to power through inattention and intentional ignorance. About Scrimgeour, who gave his life to protect his parents and uncle. About Thicknesse, still alive and in Azkaban, who cooperated with the Death Eaters and assisted in the murder of so many. She told him with great fondness about Kingsley Shacklebolt, her friend and mentor, and Alex Truman, her immediate predecessor, both of whom had groomed her for the position over the years. Now it was her office and her chair. It had been so for eight years and no one was inclined to see that change.

"What brings you to the ministry today, son?"

"Mr. Malfoy," he said as he sat.

She smiled. "Current or past?"

"Past," he smirked. "I wanted to talk with Boot about his investigation, and I need to see the effects that he's collected."

"I don't see a problem there, Hugo. I'll tell Parvati to get you the proper credentials so M.L.E. will let you in. Anything else?"

Hugo smirked. "Well, Madam Parkinson sends her regards."

Hermione laughed. "Does she?" She removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "Oh, Pansy. I never wished any of what happened on her." She looked at her son. "Luna has told me quite a lot. How much do you know?"

"Not much. Just what I've read, what you, Dad, and Uncle Harry have told me, and Scorpius has told me a little; in fact, he's showing me something tonight that concerns her."

"Memories in a pensieve? From the war?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy's."

"When you see those memories, son, remember that she was very young. We all were… much too young." That look floated across her face, the one that Hugo couldn't fathom, the one that spoke of torture and loss.

"I'll remember. Rose back from America yet?" he said attempting a subject change.

As he'd hoped, her mood lightened. "Yes, your world-traveling sister and her husband arrived at the Burrow just a few hours ago." She laughed. "I'm still amazed they took five kids to California."

"I've been telling you for years she's a masochist. Marrying Adam Finnigan, and then having not one but two sets of twins. She's barmy."

His mother laughed. "And she has Seamus and Katie Finnigan as in-laws. Poor girl."

He smiled. "Well, I'm glad she got the Burrow, it's the only place big enough for that brood."

"Yes, it is." She put her glasses back on and looked over the top of them. "And speaking of that, are you and Scorpius joining the rest of the family there for dinner Sunday?"

"Yeah, I'm sure Scor will be happy to come. I don't think he can resist Lily and Rose's cooking."

"Excellent." She rose from her chair. "Thanks for coming by, Hugo. Your old mum needs her son to show her some love from time to time."

He stood and hugged her. "I love you, Mum," he said.

"I love you too, son. Now let's get you sorted." She walked him to her office door, opened it and addressed her assistant. "Parv, Hugo needs some materials from Boot. Could you see that he gets them?"

Parvati Goldstien smiled at her boss. "Sure. What do you need, Hugo?"


	4. BL PP LL DM 022498

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 4

B.L. P.P. L.L. D.M. 02/24/98

Pansy was giving Draco a blow job. As Hugo watched he appraised her technique. _Not bad… for a girl,_ he thought, and smiled to himself. He also noted a strong similarity between father and son.

It was later that night, and he was in a memory entitled _B.L. P.P. L.L. D.M. 02/24/98_. Scorpius had hinted that this one was one of his father's favorites, and Hugo could see why. He was clearly very much in love with the damaged Miss Parkinson. For several minutes before she started stroking Draco's cock, he had held her while she cried. The Dark Lord had murdered her parents the previous night for the crime of running out of money for him to spend, and her brother for just being present.

Now she was a refugee in Malfoy manor. Draco had saved her, and she was enthusiastically showing her thanks. She had obviously done this many times for Draco, for there was no instruction or commentary from Draco, just moans of pleasure.

The door flew open and Bellatrix strode into Draco's bedroom followed by Luna. This night Bellatrix wore a leather bustier, a leather thong, and thigh-high, spike-heeled leather boots. In her hand, her wand had been transformed into a cat of nine tails. Luna wore nothing. "Oh, you started without us," Bellatrix said with a fake pout.

Pansy practically threw herself into the corner farthest from Bellatrix. She was pressed between the wall, the headboard and Draco. "Aunt Bella," Draco said in his aristocratic drawl. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We're joining you and your whore tonight, Draco." She looked at Pansy, and her commanding voice said, "Resume."

Pansy was trembling violently. "It's okay, Pan," Draco said softly. "She won't hurt you. I'll make sure."

"Will you?" Bellatrix said snidely.

Draco stared down his Aunt. "Yes, Aunt Bella, I will."

Bellatrix smiled at her nephew. "A spine at last! I knew there was Black in you." She looked at Luna. "Assist her."

Luna crossed to the bed and took Pansy's hand. "Hello, Pansy," she said. "Can you show me what Draco likes? I've only practiced on wands."

Pansy's eyes never left Bellatrix as she slid down Draco's body and shakily took his cock in her hand. "He… he likes this," she said, and licked from base to tip.

"May I?" Luna asked.

A small smile, a barest hint of the old Pansy was on her face for a moment as she said, "Sure, let's see what you've got."

Luna replicated Pansy's actions and Draco leaned back against the headboard grinning. "Teach her, Pan. You are the best, after all."

"Is she?" Bellatrix said in her haughty tone. "Is she really? Even better than I am, Draco?"

"She can do everything you can do, Aunt Bella, and more. Show them, Pan."

Hugo and Luna saw the look of loathing Pansy shot at Bellatrix, but the older woman was looking at her whip wand. Then Pansy looked at Luna. "First, no teeth. Draco's on the large side, so be careful. Like this." Pansy rolled her lips over her teeth and took just the top of Draco's cock in her mouth. Hugo and Luna could see her tongue rolling around it and Draco moaned, closing his eyes. Pansy then took his cock almost to the back of her throat, and after a moment made a small gagging sound and withdrew from him. "Try that, Lovegood."

"I might manage better than you think, Pansy. Madam Lestrange has been instructing me." Luna took Draco's cock in her mouth, rolled her tongue around it just as Pansy had done, and then took him so far that her lips brushed Pansy's fingers where they gripped his cock.

"Oh, holy fuck!" Draco said as his eyes flew wide.

"I've been training her for several weeks now. She has no gag reflex anymore, Draco," Bellatrix said. "Don't you find that lovely?"

Luna backed off halfway and then took him again, and then again. Each time she brushed Pansy's hand with her lips, she swallowed and Draco cursed.

"Great Merlin," Draco said, "That's incredible."

"Yes," Bellatrix said, "I have discovered that our little blood traitor has many unused talents." She looked at Pansy. "Resume."

As Pansy took Draco back, she attempted to replicate Luna's actions but gagged badly. "Oh, relax your throat, Pansy," Luna said, "Like you're about to take a big drink. And when you feel like gagging, swallow." Pansy tried again and was moderately successful. "Yes, like that."

The two girls traded back and forth, Pansy showing Luna how Draco liked his balls stroked lightly while she bobbed her head on his cock and Luna coaching Pansy until she could take Draco to the back of her throat, too. All the while, Bellatrix watched and diddled herself with the butt end of the cat of nine tails.

A swish sounded in the room and the whip came down across Luna's arse. Not hard enough to leave welts, but firm enough to elicit a moan from the blonde girl. "Come to me, my pet," Bellatrix said, and Luna crawled across the floor as Bellatrix sat back in the chair. The black haired witch smiled down at her and banished her thong. "Lick me."

A small nod and Luna dipped her lips to Bellatrix's now shaven pussy. She drew the outer folds into her mouth and Bellatrix let out a moan of pleasure of her own. All the while she was intently watching Pansy suck Draco.

"You want to fuck them, don't you, Draco?" Bellatrix asked after a few minutes.

"I intend to fuck Pansy, yes," he said and laughed. "I think she's enough for me."

"But not for me," Bellatrix said._ "Constrictus!" _she said and flicked her whip at Draco's cock. A small ring of silver appeared at the base, squeezing into the soft flesh.

_A cock ring? _ thought Hugo. _Imaginative._

"You two," Bellatrix said, indicating Pansy and Luna. "Amuse yourselves… and me." She smiled. "While I show you how to properly fuck a man." Luna moved away from her as she rose from the chair "Stand up Draco, back to the wall." Bellatrix commanded. She dragged the chair across the room with her and placed it a few feet in front of Draco. "Good and hard," she said as she stroked him. Bellatrix turned her back to Draco and bent over, bracing one hand on the chair while grasping Draco's cock and guiding him into her. "AHHH! Such a nice cock!" she purred.

With a flick of her wand, Bellatrix conjured a double-headed dildo into existence. "Show the whore what you can do, my pet."

The dildo had a grip in the center. Luna grasped it and guided one half into her. She let out a slow moan and instructed Pansy to sit on the floor across from her. "Scoot a little closer, yes, there," she said and grasped Pansy's right leg. "This one over the top of mine, the other one under, good. Now slide closer."

Pansy scooted toward Luna until the other end of the dildo was pressed against her. Luna slid the dildo partly out of herself in into Pansy.

"Oh, Merlin!" Pansy said in a kind of awe.

"It gets better, Pansy," Luna said and moved toward Pansy until only her fist separated them. "Now, Madam Lestrange."

"_Vibrus!_ _" _Bellatrix said breathily as she waved the whip at them.

Pansy squealed as the dildo came to life. "Oh god, oh fuck, oh shit… Oh… Oh…"

Luna moaned herself; then she looked at Pansy, smiled, grasped her foot, and suckled her big toe.

Pansy shivered in pleasure. "My god, Lovegood!"

"Yes, I find that my feet are erogenous zones, also. Do you like this?" And she sucked her little toe.

Pansy's only response was a wide eyed pant.

Hugo looked back at Bellatrix and Draco to find that the older woman had pinned Draco to the wall and was grinding herself on him. She diddled her clit and cursed while she and Draco watched the girls on the floor. "Quite the sight, isn't it?" she asked, as she rocked back and forth on Draco's cock.

Hugo didn't really pay attention to Draco's answer because at that moment the two girls came. Luna jerked the dildo back and forth between them. Pansy howled and Luna squeaked, and the two girls collapsed on the floor, breathless.

Hugo looked back to find Draco with a large grin and Bellatrix with a satisfied smirk. The dark woman thrust herself onto Draco a few more times and shuddered as she too came. "Lay on the floor," she commanded Draco. "You, whore," she addressed Pansy. "Sit on his cock."

Pansy withdrew from the dildo and Luna with a small whimper and crawled to Draco.

"Faster." The lash came down on Pansy's bare arse. Not hard, but it still left a faint red mark. Pansy hastily straddled Draco, positioned his cock against her opening, and slid onto him. She couldn't help the sigh of pleasure.

Bellatrix looked at Luna. "Bouncing ball, my pet."

Luna crawled over to Pansy and Draco, "You will love this, Pansy," Luna said knowingly. "Lean back, yes, like that. Put your hands on Draco's shins, good. Now bring your feet up to his sides." Luna turned to Bellatrix. "She's ready."

Bellatrix flicked her wand at Pansy and she floated free of the floor about a half inch.

"Now, reach forward and wrap your arms around your legs," Luna instructed as she stood.

"I'll crush his bollocks," Pansy protested.

"No, you're levitated, trust us," Luna said.

Pansy did as instructed, and Hugo saw that the cheeks of her arse were just touching Draco's thighs as she floated over him. She hugged her arms around her legs, her whole body folded into a ball as she floated above Draco.

"Now, my pet," Bellatrix commanded.

Luna grabbed Pansy by the shoulders and spun her.

"OH, GREAT FUCKING MERLIN!" Draco shouted.

Pansy was open-mouthed with a stunned expression. She was twirling like a top around Draco's cock.

"Well, now your little whore knows a new trick," Bellatrix said in a satisfied voice.

Luna grasped Pansy's shoulders and pushed down as she spun her again. Pansy bounced off Draco's hips, rebounded a few inches and then slid back down to bounce off his hips again. Luna gave her another small push-down-and-spin every time Pansy rotated to face her, and Pansy was soon bobbing up and down while twirling. It was all too much and she came, shivering and moaning. She unfolded herself, slid off Draco, and flopped to the floor when Bellatrix dispelled the levitation.

All the while Bellatrix had paced around the room, watching from every angle. "Excellent! Well done, my pet," she told Luna, "I think it's time you had a real cock." She looked at Pansy. "You were Slytherin. Tell me the old traditions are still kept."

"What traditions?" Pansy asked, dazed, avoiding Bellatrix's eyes.

"In third year…"

"Oh, that," Pansy said with a nod. "Yes." She looked at Luna. "Every Halloween, the sixth year girls raid the dorm of the third year girls and 'introduce them to the pleasant company of their fellow women.'"

"Yes, you remember it well," Bellatrix said. "So, show me you paid attention. Prepare her for him."

Pansy nodded. "Do they do something like that in Ravenclaw?" she asked Luna.

Luna smiled. "In a way. I get the impression that the Slytherin tradition is more forceful. Ours is scholarly." She closed her eyes and smiled broadly. "There is quite a lot of practical instruction though, and we have an assigned mentor. Mine was Cho Chang."

Pansy appeared genuinely curious. "Did she teach you well?" she asked as she crawled across the floor to Luna.

"Ask Madam Lestrange," Luna said with a smug grin.

Bellatrix chuckled. "I was very pleasantly surprised." She looked contemplative for a moment. "Yes, do each other."

Pansy crawled down Luna's body, kissing her breasts, her stomach, her navel, and then finally dragging her tongue through the soft blonde curls of Luna's pussy. When Luna rocked against her, Pansy buried her face and tongued Luna fiercely. Luna moaned loudly and pulled Pansy's hips down until she could slide her own tongue through the dark forest of Pansy's pussy.

Hugo laughed to himself. This was a sight he hadn't anticipated. He knew both these women well, and had never imagined that anything like this had happened in their lives. He knew that they knew each other, and were on quite friendly terms, but he had no idea that their friendship was founded on such a bizarre chain of events. They were giving each other a furious tonguing.

And they both appeared to be very good at it.

Muffled squeaks and moans came drifting up from the floor until it appeared Pansy won whatever competition they were having, and Luna cried out as she came hard. "Oh, Pansy, that was every bit as good as Cho. Thank you." She tried to rise from her prone position but couldn't. Pansy laughed, turned herself around, then she placed a passionate kiss on Luna's lips.

"You're not so bad yourself, Lovegood," she said.

"Yes, very nice," Bellatrix said. She looked at Draco. "Fuck my pet, Draco."

When Bellatrix turned back to observe Luna and Pansy, Hugo saw Draco catch Pansy's eye. He saw the unspoken question pass between them, and Pansy gave him a small smile of assurance. Hugo wasn't sure, but he suspected there was more than a hint of permission in that smile.

Draco knelt and ran his hand down Luna's body, from her neck, between her breasts, past her navel, until he reached his goal. Then he swept a finger through her wet folds and looked in her eyes. "I am many things, Lovegood," he said, almost in a whisper, "Many things I'm not proud of, but I am not a rapist."

"I know, Draco." She smiled at him.

"Only if you want," he said seriously.

She nodded. "I want."

He grinned and positioned himself over her. Pansy rolled to her hands and knees, crawled across the floor, and sat cross-legged opposite Draco. She gently lifted Luna by the shoulders and rocked forward until Luna's head and shoulders were in her lap. Then she reached down, cupped the blonde girl's breasts and tweaked her nipples. A moan sounded from deep in Luna's throat as Draco slid slowly inside her.

"Oh my, that is much nicer than a wand," Luna said and shivered, "Oh."

Pansy snickered. "I sometimes come a little too when he first takes me."

Draco leaned forward and kissed her. Then he bent and kissed Luna. "Are you ready?"

Luna nodded, and Draco began a slow thrust.

"Isn't he marvelous, my pet?" Bellatrix asked.

Luna looked up dazedly. "Oh yes, Madam, yes… yes…"

"Excellent," Bellatrix said, and brought the whip down firmly across Draco's arse. "Faster now. Fuck her, Draco, fuck her hard."

Draco sped up while Pansy stroked Luna's breasts and slid a hand down to diddle her own clit. Bellatrix brought the whip down across Draco's arse again and again, and soon there were dozens of faint red stripes running from his arse to the middle of his back.

Hugo observed that, instead of losing enthusiasm for the task at hand, it seemed to arouse Draco to a higher level.

"I'm going to come," Luna said in high, strained voice. "I…I... AAAAHHHH!" She thrashed her head back and forth and squeaked, "Oh, oh, fuck, oh fuck." Then she started to cry.

Draco was immediately concerned. "Luna? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said with a wet smile. She stroked her hand down his face. "Thank you, Draco. Thank you so much. While this is not how I would have chosen to have my first fuck, you were very good and kind. You gave me a spectacular orgasm, thank you so much." She pulled him down into a passionate kiss.

Pansy smiled down at them and brushed her hand down Draco's hair. "He's taken, Lovegood. Remember that."

Luna released Draco from the kiss and smiled up at Pansy. "Oh, I know. Thank you so much for sharing him." She laid her hand against Pansy's cheek. "Thank you both. If there's anything I can ever do for you, all you have to do is ask."

"Yes, how sweet," Bellatrix said. "Well done, Draco. I think we can let you come now." She looked at Pansy. "You have proven useful and entertaining. You may finish him."

Pansy looked back down in Luna's eyes and smiled. "Want to help?" she asked and stroked a hand down Luna's hair.

"Hmmm," Luna sighed and leaned into the caress. "Yes, I'd like that."

Pansy looked up at Draco. "Have a seat."

Draco chuckled and withdrew from Luna, who whimpered at the loss. Pansy helped Luna get to her knees, and together they crawled to Draco where he sat in the chair. Bellatrix looked on with a half-crazed smile as first Pansy then Luna sucked him. The two girls traded back and forth until Draco was squirming in the chair.

"Now," Bellatrix said, and flicked her whip-wand at Draco. The cock ring vanished, and Draco howled as he was suddenly pitched violently over the edge into a thundering orgasm. The first blast of come sailed between the two girls and across the room to land with a splat on Bellatrix's boot. The rest painted the faces of the two girls before him.

Hugo sat, whiskey in hand, across from Scorpius in front of the fireplace in the study. "You understand Madam Scamander and Pansy's friendship now?" Scorpius asked.

"Yes, and a good deal more about Madam Parkinson, too." He fell silent for a few minutes, and Scorpius let him think on what he had seen. "There were a lot of people who wanted… after the war… they wanted her blood. When did Uncle Harry find out about… all this?" He waved his hand in a circle.

"Dad went to him early on and told him, I don't know, a lot." Scorpius shrugged. "He told me that was when he and your uncle started really speaking." He smiled. "I remember him telling me he thought Potter would make him grovel." He shook his head. "Dad never did understand what it's like to be a Gryffindor like me; it's hard enough for you Ravenclaws to understand us." He shrugged. "Well, your uncle stopped him in mid-supplication, and Dad says he laughed and told him to get to the point."

Hugo smiled. "I read his testimony a few days back. The Wizengamut pretty much let him determine the punishments for the collaborators at Hogwarts." He smirked. "Assigning the Slytherins to collect Snape's body and prepare the funeral for him was a stroke of genius."

"Yeah, it was," Scorpius agreed, "It changed the whole idea of what it was to be Slytherin. Severus Snape was a very flawed man, but he showed the entire house what they should do with their ability at subterfuge."

"Well, this has been a day." Hugo looked over the top of his whiskey glass and grinned. "Bed?"

Scorpius smiled back. "Charmer," he said, stood, and led Hugo from the study.


	5. Investigation

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 5

Investigation

Hugo sat in the chair behind the desk. _Where is it, Mr. Malfoy, where the fuck is it?_ "I know the answer is here, but where?" he said out loud.

The ornate desk was large, solid mahogany from Brazil, and intricately carved. The columns at the corners sported dragons winding their way up ionic pillars. The edges of the top were decorated with a chain of stars, planets and Malfoy flower blooms. The drawers were carved with woodland scenes, and they were alive with all sorts of magical creatures. Unicorns, hippogriffs, dragons, fairies, pixies and many others cavorted in a never-ending vision of tranquility. And across the front face of the desk, another large woodland scene had the Malfoy family motto superimposed on it.

Hugo huffed. In the report he had gotten from Boot, he had found virtually nothing to help him. Draco had had a few galleons, his wand, some biscuit crumbs, a muggle underground ticket, a picture of his son and one of his daughter, and a bracelet in a long box with Pansy's name on it in the various pockets of his robes. In the room itself, there had been nothing one wouldn't expect in a wizarding household. All the various detritus of potion-making – lacewing flies, frog spleen, cat whiskers, dragon blood, snake scales and a host of other things – had been ground into the carpet over the years. Nothing had set off the dark or cursed objects sweeps that Boot had done, and the wizarding coroner was still at a loss as to what had actually killed Draco. The only indication that it hadn't been a natural death was that he had been petrified first.

Hugo flipped open Draco's calendar. That final day two and a half weeks prior had just one appointment: "Lunch with Pansy" was written in his increasingly messy script. It was a date he never kept. He flipped back a day. Two business meetings and dinner at a fine Muggle restaurant, again with Pansy, were scrawled on the page. He flipped back more and more pages. Every day was some variant of meetings, potion or spell work, and outings or meals, always with Pansy. Hugo smiled. He was increasingly happy that Madam Parkinson had had the years with Draco she deserved. After what he had seen in the pensieve, he felt she deserved it all and more.

One meeting five weeks prior to Draco's death caught his eye. "MGLDRMS." _What the hell does that mean?_ he thought to himself. Hugo pulled his notebook from his pocket and wrote down the cryptic note. He flipped back farther, and there it was again, two months ago. Now he was genuinely curious. He continued moving back through the calendar, looking for that same series of letters. Every few months it would show up. With a flick of his wand he summoned the previous year from its place on a shelf. Sure enough the letters were there, every few months, and in the year previous to that one too. They stopped appearing five years earlier.

_What the fuck?_ He thought to himself.

(*)

"Madam?" Hugo asked as he entered the drawing room and crossed to Pansy in her chair. She set her book on the small table next to her and looked at him.

"Yes, Hugo, what do you need?" she asked.

"I found an interesting note in Mr. Malfoy's calendar and I was wondering what you could tell me about it."

She smiled. "All right, what was it?"

He shrugged. "Just some letters, MGLDRMS. Do you know what that means?"

Her face fell to a frown and she looked at the floor. "I've no idea," she said shaking her head.

Hugo started. _She's lying to me!_ He sat in the chair next to hers. "Come now, Madam, you forget who I am," he said kindly. "What does it mean?"

Pansy looked up at him. "It's not important, Hugo. Let it lie," she said in a cold, hard voice. There was no trace of the kind and cultured woman he knew. _So THAT'S the Pansy Parkinson my parents grew up with._ He gave her a knowing grin. "I will find out, Madam, so it's best you tell me."

She smirked and in the same voice told him, "No, you won't. I'm the only one who knows, so short of Legilimency, which I know you won't use, you're not finding out. Draco didn't want anyone but me to know, and so no one does. It has nothing to do with what you're looking into anyway. LET. IT. LIE, Hugo."

"All right, if you say so, Madam," he said. _Not bloody likely_, he thought.

(*)

Bernard Lester had worked for the Underground for close to thirty years. From his starting position as ticket seller, he had risen through the bureaucracy to head the entire ticket sales department. Visitors to his office were rare and he liked it that way. After his years behind the window at Paddington Station he had had his fill of the public, so the knock on his office door startled him.

"Yes?" he asked the door.

It opened and a man with short-cropped, dark red hair entered his office. "Hello, Mr. Lester," the man said. "My name is Hugo Weasley, and I'm a private investigator. I wonder if I might trouble you for a moment?"

"I am a busy man, Mr. Weasley," he said shortly, and then looked at Hugo with a puzzled expression. "How did you get up here?"

Hugo smiled at him. "I have a winning way with people. Mr. Lester, I wonder if you could tell me how this ticket was used." Hugo produced an Underground ticket from his pocket.

With an air of a man who wanted to be left alone, Bernard snatched the ticket from Hugo's hand and began typing on the keyboard of his computer. "They all have barcodes that correlate to the number on the bottom off the ticket. See it there?" He pointed to a small number below the bar code.

"Yes," Hugo said, nodding.

Bernard looked back at his screen. "This one was used at eleven-thirty A.M. on the twenty-eighth of April to enter the system at Charing Cross and exit at Saint John's Wood at eleven forty-eight." He handed the ticket back to Hugo. "Is there anything else?".

Hugo smiled back at the scowling man and slid his wand from his pocket. "Yes, just one thing. Forget I was here. _Obliviate!"_

(*)

A man walked his dog down the pavement of Regent's park near the boating lake. A loud snap drew his attention toward a small copse of trees. He looked up just as the _Confundus _hit him.

"Handsome animal," Hugo said as he bent and patted the terrier on the head. "Have a lovely day." He smiled at the dazed man and walked away toward Park Road. As he reached Regent's Lodge he ducked under another tree and pulled the Underground ticket from his pocket. "Where did you go," he asked the ticket, and then he placed his wand atop it in his flattened palm. "Point me!"

His wand spun on his palm and pointed to his right and out of the park. Hugo slid it up his sleeve so the Muggles wouldn't see it, gripped his wand lightly so as to let the spell guide him, and crooked his arm to level the wand. When he reached Park Road his wand nudged to the right, and he walked along the pavement until he reached Saint John's Wood Church. His wand again nudged him further up Park Road until he stood across from The Wellington Hospital. The wand steadfastly pointed at the front door.

_Hmmm, _MGLDRMS… _Muggle Doctor! I wonder who MS is? _ He crossed the street and entered the hospital. There was a directory of physicians in the lobby, and Hugo found five with the initials _MS_. He ruled out two immediately, as one was a gynecologist and the other a pediatric specialist. That left Margaret Simpson in Ophthalmology, Mark Staler in Neurology, and Mathew Smith in General Practice. He dismissed the ophthalmologist; the healers at Saint Mungo's dispensed all the eye care in the wizarding community. He also dismissed the G.P., as again the staff of Saint Mungo's would have provided that service. This left Mark Staler in Neurology.

"A good place to start," he said to himself. The lift took him to the fourth floor. A few turns down a few hallways and he stood at the reception desk of the Neurology department.

"May I help you?" the receptionist asked from behind the window.

"I don't know," Hugo told her. "I'm looking for some information about a friend of mine's father. I think he's been coming here for some time."

"Well, I can tell you some if you'll give me his name," the middle aged woman said.

"That's just it. You see, my friend's father valued his privacy, and I'm sure he didn't use his real name."

She tsked, "That puts rather a damper on things, now, doesn't it?"

"I have a picture here." He showed her the picture of Draco and Scorpius.

"Oh, Mr. Mathews, why didn't you say so? Such a charming man, and so gracious. He always brings us the most wonderful chocolates."

"I'm sure he did. May I see his file?"

"Oh, I can't possibly; it's against the l…" Her eyes went unfocused for a moment. "What was I saying?" she asked dazedly.

"You were getting me Mr. Mathews' file," Hugo told her.

"Oh yes, of course. Just a moment." She left the desk and shuffled into a room just behind the desk. There was the sound of opening and closing file cabinets and then she reappeared with a quite thick file in her hands. "Here you are." She handed Hugo the file through the slot in the window.

"Thanks. Goodbye," he said, nodding, and hurried back down the hall.

The receptionist shook her head and looked out of her little window, puzzled. There had been someone in front of her a few seconds ago, but for the life of her she couldn't remember him. "Time for a break," she said to herself.

(*)

_Huntington's disease_. The more Hugo read, the more horrific the thought of it was, losing control of your body, and then your mind. Horrible. That was what Draco faced. The chart indicated that he had had tests run on Scorpius and Delphinia's blood to check for the gene that was thankfully absent from both.

But not from his.

_The murderer did you a favor,_ Hugo thought. "Oh, Mr. Malfoy," he said to the room. The chart told Hugo that Draco had known of his condition for close to five years, and that, as of his last checkup, the disease had progressed on its normal track. He was beginning to have some motor control issues, and the doctor was treating him with some medicines that, while not curing the disease, moderated the symptoms. His mental faculties were just beginning to be affected. The most recent test showed Draco was starting to have short term memory issues, and he also said that Pansy was seeing some angry outbursts from time to time. _I wonder when you were going to tell Scor, _he thought.

_Well, that was a dead end._ Hugo huffed and closed the file. "Another flat white, please," he told the waitress at the small coffee bar that overlooked Regent's Park. She returned in a few minutes with another cup. The artfully poured steamed milk in the cup reminded Hugo of the flowers decorating the desk in the study. He contemplated. _No, I won't tell Scor. I do need to tell Madam Parkinson, though._

(*)

"I know."

Pansy turned from the fireplace in the sitting room. "I told you it wasn't Important." There was no smile or kindnesses in her voice, no hint of anger either, just resignation.

"I won't be telling Scorpius."

"That's for the best, Hugo."

"He didn't commit suicide?"

Pansy snorted and a hint of a smile played on her face. "No, Draco would never do that. I told you, Draco couldn't kill anyone."

"I'm sorry, Madam. You were right," he said sincerely.

"That's okay, Hugo." She half smiled again. "I knew you wouldn't give it up. You Ravenclaws!" She rolled her eyes. "And they think the 'puffs are tenacious."

He chuckled. "Well, let's get down to dinner, shall we? I think I need to be prepared for tonight." His expression sobered.

"What are you two doing tonight?"

"Just looking in the pensieve, but it's a… particular memory."

She looked at him curiously for a moment and then a look of understanding came over her face. "The night your parents were here?"

He nodded.

Pansy straightened. "Hugo Weasley, you didn't listen to me before, but listen to me now. I was here that night. I didn't see, but I did hear. I couldn't help but hear. Don't, you really don't want to, Hugo."

"I've wanted to know since I can remember, Madam. I need to know."

"It was awful," she said angrily. "All right? It was horrible. You have no idea what that… that woman was capable of. Don't be a fool, Hugo."

"I can't help it, Madam. I must know." He held his fist against his chest. "I _need_ to know."

She sighed. "Well, I won't rat you out to your mother, but don't expect pity from me when you…" She shook her head and smirked. "Come on, let's go have dinner."


	6. BL HG 032398

_A/N This is the hardest and the darkest chapter I've ever had to write."Are you sure" That's the first question Scorpius asks, and I'll ask you that too. I quote Malfoy Manor rather a lot in this chapter._

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 6

B.L. H.G. 03/23/98

"Are you sure?"

Hugo was uncharacteristically shaking a little as he held the vial. "Y… Yes, yes, I am."

"I won't be joining you. I promised Dad, and I will keep that promise."

"No problem, Scor. I'll keep what I see to myself." He looked contemplatively at the white mist in the vial. "Did he ever talk about it?"

"Only once… when we were very, very drunk. He actually cried." Scorpius shook his head and a tear ran down his cheek. "He was sorry, Hugo, more sorry for that than… well, you'll see."

"What did he say?"

"That his Aunt was crazy, crazy in a lot of sick fucking ways. That she made him do things that he would never have dreamed of doing if she hadn't made him." Tears were running fast down Scorpius' face now. "You've seen what she was."

"Yeah, I guess I have." Hugo said as he held the vial over the pensieve. "Okay," he looked at Scorpius as he poured the memory into the basin. "I love you," he said and plunged his head into the pensieve.

"Except… Except for the Mudblood."

Bellatrix was standing next to a group of people bound together by thick ropes. She was dressed in her Death Eater robes and she had that crazed look in her eyes. Her hair was an unruly mess of black curls, and her voice was thick with hate. They were all standing in the great room just down the hall from where he currently was in Scorpius' study.

"No!" a man shouted, "You can have me, keep me!" Hugo looked back at the prisoners and immediately recognized his father, mother, Uncle Harry, and their friend Dean Thomas. His heart swelled with pride as his father struggled to get free of the ropes. It was no use. His mother was right, they were so young.

Bellatrix was speaking again. "If she dies under questioning, I'll take you next. Blood traitor is next to Mudblood in my book." She gave orders for the rest of the prisoners to be taken to the basement as she cut his mother free of the ropes. The evil woman dragged his mother across the floor by her hair to the center of the room while his father and uncle were pulled, struggling, to the hallway door. His father was looking at his mother with an expression of abject terror as he was forced from the room.

"Now, Miss Mudblood," Bellatrix was speaking again, and Hugo had to turn and focus on her. He was beginning to regret this. _"Crucio!_ _" _ His mother screamed. Hugo leapt at Bellatrix and passed completely through her. He turned, and for the first time noticed the other people in the room. Scorpius' father, grandmother, and grandfather were standing in a huddle near the door to the kitchen. The werewolf, Greyback, skulked in a corner. Draco did not look well. It was obviously several months since the episode with Luna and Pansy. He actually looked sick: his skin had an almost yellow cast, his cheeks were hollow, and he was also trembling. Draco's father was looking on in what was obviously an alcoholic haze, and Narcissa was glaring daggers at her sister.

A voice floated up from the basement, "Hermione!" No one in the room seemed to have heard it.

When Bellatrix released the curse, Hugo's mother sunk to the floor, weeping. "I don't like torturing people," Bellatrix lied silkily. "They just expect it," she said, indicating the watching Malfoys.

"Hermione!" Hugo's father was still shouting.

"Now, where did you get this sword?"

Hugo was staring at his mother. She was so thin, so pale. She spat a bit of foamy blood from her mouth and tried to answer. "I… we…"

"_Crucio_!" shouted Bellatrix.

His mother was screaming again, and so was his father, and so was he. "STOP! STOP! STOP!" Hugo shouted over and over, but he couldn't make it stop. It had all happened forty years earlier, and all he could do was watch and weep.

"I'm going to ask you again! Where did you get this sword? Where?" Bellatrix shouted. She pulled Hugo's mother upright by her hair and pressed her wand to his mother's throat.

"We found it—we found it—PLEASE!"

Bellatrix bent down and whispered in his mother's ear. "Liar." Then the evil woman shoved her wand against that same ear. "_Crucio_!"

It was horrible. He could do nothing but watch as his mother experienced the agony of the curse. "You're lying, filthy Mudblood, and I know it! You have been inside my vault at Gringotts! Tell the truth, tell the truth!" Bellatrix placed her wand tip against his mother's sex. "_Crucio_!"

It was the worst scream yet. When Bellatrix release the curse his mother fell to the floor, barely conscious. Hugo looked up at the Malfoy family. Draco's father was looking on with the same expression one would have watching a particularly engaging sporting event. Draco… Draco had tears, unshed tears in his eyes, and Mrs. Malfoy was looking anywhere but at his mother. He turned back to the two on the floor.

"What else did you take?" Bellatrix shouted as she pulled a small silver dagger from her robes. "What else have you got? Tell me the truth or I swear I shall run you through with this knife!" Bellatrix pulled up his mother's shirt and ran the flat side of the blade across her stomach. "Shall I open you?" she asked in a whisper, "Take out your womb so you'll never bear the blood traitor a child?" She pressed the point against his mother's abdomen and she howled again in fear.

"Tell her!" Hugo shouted.

Bellatrix stood and pointed her wand at his mother's head. "What else did you take, what else? ANSWER ME! _CRUCIO_!"

Hugo thought his head would burst from the scream. "Stop, no, please stop," he sobbed. He could hear his father yelling her name over and over in the basement. "Please, Dad, please get here soon," he sobbed again.

"_Crucio_!" It was happening again. Hugo knew now, he knew why his parents got that look, he knew why they wouldn't, couldn't tell. In the memory he fell to his knees. "Please, Dad, please," he wept.

Bellatrix bent and pulled his mother up by her hair again. "How did you get into my vault? Did that dirty little goblin in the cellar help you?" she asked.

"We only met him tonight! We've never been inside your vault. . . . It isn't the real sword! It's a copy, just a copy!" his mother sobbed hysterically. He was amazed at her ability to lie so convincingly in the midst of the torture, a Gryffindor to her very soul. He felt the stirrings of pride in her starting to overcome his horror and distress.

"A copy?" Bellatrix yelled and threw her to the floor. "Oh, a likely story!"

"But we can find out easily!" Mr. Malfoy said in a drunken slur. He turned to his son. "Draco, fetch the goblin, he can tell us whether the sword is real or not!"

Draco practically ran from the room. Narcissa crossed to Hugo's mother and knelt beside her. "She's still alive, Bella. Perhaps we should leave her that way until The Dark Lord arrives."

"She's mine, _my_ toy," Bellatrix said with an insane grin, "I'll kill her when I like."

Just then Draco appeared in the doorway with the goblin. He walked the goblin to Bellatrix, and held it while his aunt interrogated it. When she finished she turned back to his mother. "_Crucio_!"

_NOOOO! Not again!_ Hugo thought. Dad, where are you?

A loud crack of apparition sounded in the basement. Hugo heaved a sigh of relief. It was nearly over. _That's Madam Scamander, Mr. Ollivander and Mr. Thomas escaping. Come on, Dad. Come on._

Lucius Malfoy looked up from Hugo's mother into his wife's eyes. "What was that?" He slurred loudly. "Did you hear that? What was that noise in the cellar?" He turned to his son. "Draco—no, call Wormtail! Make him go and check!" Draco left the room for no more than a few seconds, then returned.

"He's checking on them now," he said in a flat, soft voice.

Everyone in the room was silent, listening for anything more from the basement. The only sound in the room was a soft moaning from the crumpled shape on the floor. He heard Wormtail command the occupants of the cellar to stand away from the door, and then the soft sounds of the life and death struggle Hugo knew was taking place a few feet below them.

Lucius Malfoy looked a little troubled. "What is it, Wormtail?" he asked loudly to the floor.

"Nothing, all fine," a raspy voice yelled back. Hugo stopped crying. _Come on, Dad. Hurry up._

Bellatrix turned back to the goblin and Hugo's mother. She asked the goblin if it was the true sword in her hand, and the goblin, Griphook, lied for them. His reward was a slash across the face.

Bellatrix turned to the werewolf skulking by the door, the same one who had made Headmistress Brown what she was. "And I think we can dispose of the Mudblood. Greyback, take her if you want her."

And then at last his father and uncle were there.

"NOOOOOO!" his father shouted as he charged into the room.

This part had been written about by a hundred authors chronicling the war. They got it mostly right. His father relieved Bellatrix of her wand, his uncle stupefied Lucius Malfoy, and then Bellatrix had the knife to his mother's throat, giving her the scar she still carried. Draco collected the wands from Hugo's father and uncle, and now Bellatrix was gloating, telling them that Riddle was on his way. The chandelier fell and it was pandemonium again. His father ran directly to his mother and pulled her from the wreckage of the chandelier, while his uncle punched Draco in the face and easily took the wands plus Draco's own from him.

Then a curious thing happened that no one had written about. "Get out of here," Draco whispered. "Come on, Weasel, Potter. Get her out of here now!"

The free elf, Dobby, arrived and magic-ed Narcissa's wand from her. His uncle threw a wand to his father, and his father and mother vanished. His uncle grabbed the goblin and the elf, and then he too Apparated away, but not before Bellatrix threw the knife that ended the hero Dobby's life.

No one had written much of what happened next at the manor. Most of the stories followed his mother, father, and uncle to his Uncle Bill's house on the north coast of the Firth of Forth. Hugo now saw what Draco did after the fight in the drawing room.

Draco wrenched his hand from his mother's and dashed from the room. He pounded up the stairs to his own room and flung the door open. Pansy was cowering on the bed with the covers drawn up around her.

"What the fuck was going on down there, Draco? Who was screaming?"

"Granger. Aunt Bella was torturing her. She, the Weasel, and Potter just escaped, now it's our turn. You've got a wand, and the Dark Lord is on his way right now. We need to get the fuck out of here." He was shaking with fear. "He's probably going to kill everyone here when he finds out. Come on." He wrenched her out of the bed none too gently.

"Where will we go, Draco?"

"Hogwarts. Snape, Snape will take us in, protect us… I hope. Apparate us to Hogsmeade."

Pansy paused in mid spin. "What about Luna?"

"She's a survivor, Pan. She'll be all right, just get us out of here, NOW!"

He grabbed Pansy's hand and they Apparated away.

Hugo fell back on his arse in the study, took one deep breath, and collapsed into hysterical, heaving sobs. Scorpius picked him up by the shoulders and helped him to a chair, while Pansy sat on the desk watching. Beside her was a tray with a glass of milk and some chocolate pieces in a small bowl. Scorpius rubbed Hugo's back and spoke quietly to him, telling him it was long ago, that they had survived and thrived, and that he loved him. Pansy waited for Hugo's anguish to subside before she spoke.

"Now that you know," she said when Hugo's sobs had stopped, "Was it worth it?"

Hugo looked up at her from his chair. "I don't know, I think so."

He was in danger of slipping back into uncontrollable weeping. Pansy could tell, she knew from personal experience. She lifted the bowl and glass from the tray and carried them to Hugo. "Chocolate, Hugo." She jiggled the bowl. "Here, eat some, it really does work."

He took a piece and nibbled.

"Why? Why?" Pansy asked. "I still don't understand why you needed to see that."

He sighed heavily. "Scorpius could tell you. I have a need. I have this need to know. I can't just accept things as is." He waved his hand in a small circle. "'That's just the way it is,' or some such. Or, 'You'll have to accept it.' I DON'T!" he said forcefully. "It's what makes me so good at my job. I just have to know."

Scorpius sat on the arm of Hugo's chair and kissed the top of his head. "That's my Ravenclaw. He just can't take 'Fuck off' for an answer."

Pansy smirked and Hugo let out a strained chuckle. "One thing I know," he said, "It just made me love Mum and Dad even more." He shook his head from side to side. They suffered so much for us… for all of us." He looked at Pansy. "You've seen the scars on Dad's arms?"

She nodded. "Yes, and I know how he got them. He still has the nightmares?"

"Not anymore. Mum does, though." He looked at Pansy sadly. "She suffered so much, so young. This, the curse at the ministry battle, petrified, attac…" he stopped dead, his mouth hanging open. He stared into nothingness for a full minute.

"Uh-oh," Scorpius said, "I've seen that one before." He smirked knowingly at Pansy. "He just had a brain wave."

Hugo whispered, "I think I know how it was done. " He looked at Scorpius. "I need to talk to Madam Scamander."


	7. Revelation

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 7

Revelation

"Good morning, Hugo," Luna said as she let him into her office. "I wasn't expecting you." The office of Lovegood Publishing occupied a large section of the second floor of the old Daily Prophet building. The Prophet was still going strong, but the Quibbler tended to outsell it. It really didn't matter to Luna which paper succeeded on any particular day, since she owned them both. Her unassuming and odd nature had led her business rivals to vastly underestimate her ability. It had cost them. At age twenty-eight she had assumed the helm of Lovegood publishing, and at age thirty-three she had acquired the Prophet in a hostile buyout that still had the wizarding financial analysts scratching their heads.

Her yearly excursions to remote wildernesses in search of unknown creatures had resulted in her meeting of and subsequent marriage to Rolf Scamander. Together, they'd formed a formidable partnership for many years until his untimely death two years previous. She still wore a black armband in his memory. Hugo noted the armband as he leaned in to kiss her cheek.

"I just have some questions, and I know you will have the answers," he told her. "Your… hobby would be the wrong word for it; your avocation makes you the expert I need."

She looked at him with her curious expression. "On?"

"Basilisks."

She smiled and shook her head. "You are so brilliant, go on."

Her response puzzled him but he was used to being puzzled by Madam Scamander. "I think I know how Mr. Malfoy was killed. I think someone used a basilisk. It fits, the petrification, the sudden death, no traces of spell damage, all of it."

"So it does," she said nodding at him. "Well then, what do you need me for?"

"Well, I mean, how does one acquire a basilisk without getting dead oneself?" he asked.

"That is the trickiest part," she answered. "If I were to do it, I'd raise one from an egg so that I could hood it when I worked with it. They are very small when they first hatch, you see, so they are quite manageable."

He smiled in understanding. "Yes, that must be how it was done." He stood and began to pace. "The person raised a basilisk, took it to Mr. Malfoy and… showed it to him." He stopped in front of the fireplace. "But how did they get past the wards? Only family can freely enter and leave the manor, and I've cleared them all." He leaned against the mantel piece.

"A true mystery, Hugo," Luna said and smiled again. "You seem very close to the answer. I wonder if you'll get it."

He turned to her. "I know, it's maddening," he huffed and turned back to the mantel. His eyes wandered over the pictures: Luna with her friends from the DA, she and her first real love, Dean Thomas, her with Dean at a dinner at the Burrow. He laughed at the picture. Both his mother and Aunt Ginny were very pregnant, his mother with him and his aunt with Lily Luna. The next few were with Rolf, and then the pictures of the boys began. Lorcan and Lysander were just finishing at Hogwarts. Both were Ravenclaw, and both were as brilliant as their mother. Their whole lives were laid out on the mantel.

It started with pictures of them as infants, and then they were just crawling, then walking, then accompanying their parents on their wanderings in the wild. The two white-blond boys were the picture of happiness. Cavorting in the wilds of Borneo, roaming the plains of Africa, scaling the heights of Tibet, all in search of creatures no one but their parents believed in. And occasionally they had proven everyone else wrong and found one, but never the Snorkak. He picked up the picture from their last year. They smiled and waved from the steps of Hogwarts, then something clicked in his head and he became weak at the knees.

"Oh, my god," he said in a whisper. There in front of him was the answer. Lorcan and Lysander had Scorpius' chin, his eyes, his hair, his smile, it was the same smile Delphinia shared, Draco Malfoy's smile. "It was…"

The _Petrificus Totalus_ hit him before he could finish.

"Me, yes," Luna said. She walked across the room to him and slid his wand from his pocket. "I am the mother of two Malfoys, the house wards saw me as kin." She smiled. "I am very proud of you, Hugo. Your mother knows the twins, your cousins, aunts and uncles, even Scorpius and Delphinia know them." She walked back to her desk, set his wand on it, and sat. "My god, Delphinia is friends with Lorcan's girlfriend, they are in the same room all the time, but no one has ever even hinted at suspecting the real truth. You? You take one _good_ look at them and it all becomes crystal clear. You're brilliant." She laughed. "Rose has nothing on you."

Luna took a small bottle from the top right desk drawer. She placed her wand to her temple and withdrew a long, shining memory, then she placed it carefully in the bottle. "This will answer everything, Hugo." With a flick of her wand, the wall next to the fireplace opened revealing a pensieve. The bottle floated across the room, came to rest on the mantle, and then Hugo was free of the bodybind.

"Why?" he asked.

Luna nodded once at the bottle on the mantle. Hugo nodded back. He picked up the bottle and emptied it into the pensieve.

"Where to put _YOU?"_ a voice said in the darkness. Hugo recognized the voice of the sorting hat immediately. "Brilliant mind, courage, loyalty, craftiness, it's all here. You could be great in Slytherin, a talent they need."

"But I don't think I'd fit there," Luna said.

"No, perhaps not," the hat said. "They would not care for you as you need to be cared for, and Snape surely would have a bad effect on your development. No, not Slytherin, then. Hufflepuff? You would prosper there, they would care for you, shield you from those that would bully you for your ways."

"I need to be challenged," Luna said. "I don't believe that house has high enough standards to challenge me."

"Definitely not, but you would be loved there, I sense a great need in you to be loved. However your need to prove yourself, your need to learn and grow are far greater than that. Not Hufflepuff then." The hat was silent for several minutes, but Luna did not interrupt its musings.

"I put the last one of you in Gryffindor, and she is doing very well, but they have her, so for _you _it has to be… Ravenclaw!"

"Lie down," Pansy said as she helped Luna to the bed. The whip marks across Luna's back were deep red. "Why does she do this? I thought she liked you?" Pansy asked as she applied the salve to Luna's wounds. Luna gasped at the coolness of the salve and sank into the bed in relief. Hugo watched the red fade to a light pink as the salve did its work. The whip marks ran from Luna's shoulders to thighs. Dozens of them crisscrossed her naked back, arse, and legs.

"It pleases her."

"Sick fucking bitch," Pansy spat. "I know you could kill the cunt, why don't you?"

"That is not for me to do."

Pansy was silent for a few minutes while she applied the salve to Luna. Hugo saw the great care Pansy took in making sure every welt was treated. Her touch on Luna's back was loving and delicate. They were in Draco's room. Hugo recognized it from his previous trip in the Malfoy pensive. It was apparent that some time had passed, and Luna and Pansy were much thinner than they had been in the memory from Draco.

Pansy drew a shaky breath and almost in a whisper asked, "Do you think he can do it, Potter? Do you think he can really kill… _Him?"_

"He will," Luna replied calmly.

This time Pansy did whisper, "I hope so."

"You did well with the salve, Pansy."

Pansy smiled. "Mrs. Malfoy helped. She let me into her potion stores. I'd have never got the dittany without her."

"I think Mrs. Malfoy is in a very difficult position," Luna said.

"We all are." Pansy looked into the distance. "They want me," she said in a dead voice. "Like they wanted Draco." Tears started rolling down her face. "I won't, I won't become her, Bellatrix. I won't!"

Luna rolled onto her side and put the palm of her hand against Pansy's cheek. "You could never become her, you have a heart. Hers has been dead for some time."

Pansy took Luna's hand and kissed her palm. "I wanted to hate you," she said, smiling through the tears. "When I first came here, but then I got to know you. Hating you is impossible, just as impossible as not loving you."

Luna smiled at her. "I love you too, Pansy. We will survive this, you'll see."

"_Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus," _Draco shouted as he shoved the basement door open. Jason Avery, Death Eater, stood over Luna. His trousers and pants were around his ankles, his little hard-on poking out. "Fucking rapist pig," Draco said as he approached the man. "You're not one of his inner circle; they won't miss you."

Pansy was right behind Draco and hurried over to Luna. She pulled the naked, crying girl into her arms. "Did he?"

"No," Luna got out between sobs. "But he beat me, he made me touch him, and he was about to…"

Pansy's face became a cold, hard mask. "Give me his wand, Draco," she said.

"Yeah, you need one. That's right handy, that is." He gave Pansy the wand and turned back to smile in the man's face. "So, what to do, what to do? I say we Obliviate you back to infancy."

"Leave, and take Luna," Pansy said in a voice that Hugo had never heard. A chill ran down his spine. Her voice was so cold.

"Pansy?" Draco asked.

"Leave now, Draco," she said flatly.

Draco looked at her in wonder and fear. "Pan…"

"Now!"

"O... Okay," he said and picked Luna up from the floor and carried her, threshold-style, out of the basement. Hugo was forced to follow. As they ascended the stairs they heard Pansy shout, _"Avada Kedavra!"_

"_Draco couldn't kill anyone." Yeah, but you didn't say anything about yourself, _Hugo thought.

The Wizengamot was assembled it their hall, and Luna stood on the witness dais. "I owe my life to Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson," she said loudly and firmly. "They protected me from death many times during my captivity at Malfoy manor. They proved to me that they were not true believers in Tom Riddle's cause and war. You have heard Harry Potter's testimony. You have heard how Draco lied to protect him. Even though Pansy suggested that Harry be given to the Dark Lord, she did so out of fear for her life. She had been horribly treated by Riddle, her family murdered, and her inheritance lost. She was in no condition, at the time, to determine right from wrong. She was simply trying to survive the day. Draco saved her life and mine, and Pansy treated me as a sister in our captivity. They must be pardoned!"

"He… he's going to marry that bitch," Pansy sobbed in Luna's arms. Luna embraced her friend and patted her back. They were in the Lovegood home. Hugo recognized it.

"He has to, Pansy. He doesn't want to, you know that." Luna stroked Pansy's hair. "We both know how much he loves you, but this is necessary for his family, or so his mother believes."

"I thought she liked me," Pansy said against Luna's chest.

"She does, but her likes and dislikes are irrelevant in her social calculations. She is trying to restore her family's position in society, and since your family's power and influence is gone she has turned to the Greengrass family."

"But if he loves me, how could he m… m…" Pansy dissolved into tears again.

"To protect you." Luna nodded, held Pansy out by her shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. "That's his plan, I think. You both would be homeless if he refused. His mother would surely have you evicted from the manor, and he would have to follow to protect you. This way you stay safe. It's actually a selfless act of his part, I'm impressed."

"But how will I survive without him?"

"Oh, I don't think you'll be without him all that much, Pansy," Luna said with a smile. "He'll be with you more than you think."

"His mistress, then?" Pansy said with disgust.

"No, his lover," Luna said. She leaned in and kissed Pansy. It was a long, loving kiss. "And you will always have me."

"Rolf is sterile," Luna said to Pansy and Draco. They were sitting in the dining room of the manor. "I need to ask a favor of you both."

"Anything, Luna," Pansy said and took her hand.

"Rolf doesn't know, no one but the three of us knows." Luna swallowed hard. "Draco, you resemble Rolf to a degree. I… I…"

"You want me to give you a child," he said astutely.

"Yes."

He looked at Pansy, and she smiled. "Of course, Luna," she said. "As long as I get to be there for the fun part."

Pansy tweaked Luna's nipples and sucked her neck while Draco pounded into her gold-enshrouded pussy. Luna lay against Pansy on the bed in Pansy's room in the manor, while Draco stood at the edge of the bed with Luna's legs over his shoulders.

"Oh, oh fuck, Draco. I'm coming again," Luna gasped. "Such a wonderful cock you have."

"You're not so bad yourself, Luna. Oh shit!" he said and shivered as she came. "So good."

"Give it to her, Draco, my love," Pansy said. "We're making a baby tonight."

Draco redoubled his efforts, and in moments he and Luna cried out together. He pulled Luna from the bed and into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him, never letting him free from the intimate embrace. Even when he turned and flopped onto the bed on his back Luna still straddled him, his cock still buried in her.

"I believe this time will be a success, Draco," she said dreamily. "Although these last few months have been very pleasant, I think we are finished."

Pansy leaned in and first kissed Draco, then Luna. "Not if you don't want to be. I've rather enjoyed these Sundays."

The three laughed, Luna kissed Draco, and then rolled off of him. "I think it's Pansy's turn," she said.

"I made her come once already," Draco said with a smirk.

"Oh yes, I know," Luna said. She was lying on her back with her legs crossed and draped over the foot board. "But I came at least five times just now. That's not exactly fair now is it?" She grabbed Pansy's hand. "Come, sit on my face, my beautiful, Slytherin princess."

And Pansy did.

With her knees on either side of Luna's head she wriggled and squirmed. "Oh, fuuuuck, Luna,' she gasped.

"I just did," Draco said, and he kissed her. He was on his knees facing Pansy, kissing her mouth, her breasts, her neck. Then the door flew open and Astoria Malfoy stormed into the room.

"You Fuck!" she shouted.

Draco slowly disengaged from Pansy and smiled at his wife. "Hello, dear. How's your day going?" he asked in his aristocratic drawl.

"Better than yours, you fuck. I'm going to curse that cock of yours right off."

She drew back her wand, but she never got the chance to let her spell fly. Luna had slid from under Pansy and drawn her wand from her hair. The stunning spell knocked Astoria completely out of the room, and she landed unconscious on her back in the hall.

"Thanks, Luna," Draco said. He let out a sigh. "Can't say I'm sorry she found us out, but this may put a kink in your plans."

"I'll cast _Obliviate_ on her," Luna said. "She'll just wake up downstairs on the couch a little confused."

As she raised her wand to perform the spell Draco stopped her hand. "No," he said. "Scorpius is at Hogwarts now. There's no need to continue the charade of this marriage." He turned to Pansy "You've waited far too long for me." He turned back to Luna. "Make her forget you, but that's all. She can remember me and Pan." He smiled his wicked smile and nodded to himself. "Yeah, I like that. Have her remember me and Pan."

"There's something you need to do," Draco said. They were much older. Luna sat behind her desk in her office in the Prophet building. "Here." He slid a pamphlet across her desk and sat quietly while she read it.

"Huntington's Chorea?" she asked.

"I have it."

"Oh, Draco," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

"There's more," he said. "As you read, it's a genetic disease. That means my children need to be tested. I was able to test Scorpius and Delphinia without them knowing. However…"

"Lorcan and Lysander," she said in a hushed voice.

"Yes."

Luna's hands were shaking. The envelope she held had the word "Confidential" stamped on the outside. The return address was a muggle medical testing facility in Liverpool. She carefully opened the letter and withdrew the two yellow results forms. Hugo could see a lot of typed writing on the forms but just before Luna collapsed to the floor weeping he was able to see the hand written word "Negative" followed by a little smiley face on each of the forms.

"We were lucky," Pansy said. "We were so lucky." Pansy, Luna, and Draco walked through the back gardens of the manor, and Hugo followed them. "We totally beat the odds."

"Well, while there are four of them, there were only three pregnancies." Luna said. "The odds are one in four, but since Lorcan and Lysander are maternal it was only one conception." She smiled at Pansy. "Still, we were very lucky."

They approached a bench and Draco pulled them down to sit on either side of him. "I need you girls to do me a favor," he said in an empty voice.

Pansy looked stricken. "No, Draco," she said near tears.

Draco continued. "You've read, you know what will happen. There's no stopping it." There was no pretense, no formality; he was talking plainly to the two women he loved most in the world, Hugo could tell. "I won't die looking into eyes full of pity, especially not yours. When it's time, when it's advancing, but before I'm… not me. I want…"

Pansy dissolved into the tears that had been threatening. "I can't, I can't, Draco, I can't."

"I will," Luna said quietly.

Hugo pulled his head from the pensieve and took a great, heaving breath. "Oh, god," he said as he sat in the chair next to him.

"And now you know everything, Hugo," Luna said from her chair. "What would you have done?"

"I… I don't know."

"Yes," she said. "It's a very difficult moral conundrum. To free a friend, a lover, from a terrible fate, or to follow thousands of years of societal conditioning, that was my choice. I chose love."

"But what do I do?" he asked in tears. "Do I tell Scorpius his father was murdered to save him from a lingering, wasting death? Do I keep a secret from the man I love most in the world?" He stood and yelled at her. "What am I supposed to do? What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

"Sit, Hugo," she commanded softly. "You will do neither," she said as he sat back in the chair. "You will tell Scorpius and Boot a compelling story that you will absolutely believe." She smirked. "Until the day that I die, _Obliviate!"_

"…And so that's what happened," Hugo said. "It was an accident. Mr. Malfoy was raising a basilisk, quite illegally I might add, for some potions that he was experimenting with, and it must have got out of whatever he was keeping it in. Madam Scamander was very helpful. Basilisks are extremely fragile when they are newborn. She told me it probably died a few hours after, as they need to be fed quite often, and he wasn't there to feed it. It's just dust and scales in the carpet now."

"Thanks, Weasley," Adam Boot said as he rose from his chair in the Leaky Cauldron. "That's one huge file off my desk, and one major pain in my backside gone. How did Scorpius take it?"

"Well enough, he's still very sad that his father is gone but happy that it wasn't a murder." He looked at the M.L.E. officer. "This doesn't need to be public. Madam Scamander has promised that neither the Prophet nor the Quibbler will be pursuing this story, so if you're okay with it, it ends here."

Adam Boot nodded. "No problem, Hugo. Case closed."


	8. Epilogue

Message in a Bottle

Chapter 8

Epilogue

Pansy smiled as Luna approached the little table. The small coffee shop in Diagon Alley was sparsely populated at eleven A.M. on a Tuesday, and they had the outdoor seating to themselves. "Chamomile," Luna said as she set the teapot on the pad in the center of the table. "I thought that after the last few days we could use something calming."

"Always so practical." Pansy looked at her friend with a sad smile. "Thank you, and D… Draco thanks you, too."

"I am certain," Luna said. "Will you be okay?"

Pansy looked into the sky above the rooftops. "Eventually, eventually." She looked back down at Luna. "Hugo told me what was in his report. Your back-up plan worked perfectly."

"Thank you for warning me he was so close to the truth, it let me prepare for him."

"It was the least I could do… considering everything." Pansy's hand went to the locket she wore. As she gently caressed the gift Draco gave her on Delphinia's first birthday, she said, "I think he was ready."

"He was, Pansy. I would never have proceeded if there was a chance he wasn't. I believe he told you repeatedly how much he loved you and how happy his time with you made him. He made sure Scorpius and Delphinia knew how much he loved them, and he arranged his affairs so that you and his children will never want for anything."

Pansy chuckled. "Well, not all his children."

Luna smiled. "The boys can't spend their way through their allowance now, I doubt they'll ever want for anything, either. One day Lorcan and Lysander will know the truth and why I kept it from them, but it won't matter by then, we'll be gone."

Luna laid her hand on Pansy's. "Come and live with me." Pansy looked at her, slightly shocked. Luna smiled. "We're both alone now, Pansy. I don't intend to go looking for another man, and I don't think you will."

"No, there was never another man for me, never, and there never will be."

Luna nodded. "I know, nor for me. No one would care, Pansy, and I think we could be very happy together. Neither of us has a love constrained by gender, I love you and I believe you love me."

Pansy smiled warmly at her. "Yes, I love you. I've loved you since… ever."

"Then come live with me. The manor holds too many memories for you, and I don't think it would be a good idea for you to stay there with them. I believe, even with Scorpius and Hugo there with you, it would become a cloister of sadness. Come down to Surrey, breathe the fresh country air, and feel the sun on your face. Come and live with me, my beautiful Slytherin princess, and we'll make some new memories."

Pansy smiled genuinely. "All right."

Pansy was coming. Her fingers tangled in Luna's hair as the blonde woman tongued her relentlessly. They lay on a blanket in a field of wildflowers, a basket with bread, wine and cheese lying forgotten next to them.

"Oh, Luna," Pansy sighed.

Luna kissed her way up Pansy's body until they lay side by side on the blanket. "Yes, my love?"

Pansy stretched and embraced her lover, then she kissed her long and passionately. "I love you."

"I'm aware, you showed me just how much earlier," Luna said. The wicked grin she wore was an expression only Pansy ever saw, and it made her blush a little.

"Who'd have thought, all those years ago when we were prisoners, that we'd end up here," Pansy said.

"Certainly not Madam Lestrange," Luna said, and Pansy chuckled. Luna absently made shadow shapes with her fingers on the alabaster skin of Pansy's stomach. The warm summer sun tracked lazily across the sky while Pansy watched her lover. Finally Luna looked up into her eyes and said, "They say heaven can be found in the most unlikely of places. It certainly was that way for us."

Pansy leaned in and kissed her soundly. "Yes it was."

Pansy and Luna sat in the drawing room of Parkinson Place. Hugo recognized it. This memory was from much later, after Luna had purchased Parkinson Place as an anniversary present for Pansy. The two women appeared to be in their late nineties, and they smiled amiably at him.

"And so now at last you know everything, Hugo," Luna said and smirked. "Again."

Pansy smiled at Luna and turned to him. "It's your choice how much to tell Scorpius, but I think he can know everything as well," she said.

"Lorcan and Lysander have been given a similar message, and they will probably be coming to you soon," Luna told him. "They will be surprised, I am sure, but they know you and Scorpius well, and I think they will be happy to have another brother and a sister."

"We love you both," Pansy said. "Now that you know how far we had to go to protect Draco and his children, I hope you can forgive us the small liberties we took. Remember us fondly, Hugo."

"Goodbye," they said together, and the memory went dark.

Hugo pulled his head from the pensieve in Scorpius's study. He looked at his husband of forty years and started to chuckle.

"What's so funny, Hugo?" Scorpius asked.

"Madam Scamander," he said and sniggered. "She chose an interesting set of memories to leave me."

"Did they have the answer you needed?"

Hugo snorted. "That and more, my love, that and more." He heaved a breath and walked to the bar. "I'm having a double," he chuckled as he poured two glasses. "And so are you."

"I am, am I?" Scorpius said as he took his glass.

Hugo laughed as he sat in his chair across from Scorpius. "Yeah, you're going to need it." Hugo smiled across his glass and took a long draw. "First, you have two brothers…"


End file.
